Mercedes-Benz Stadium May Not Be Ready For Start Of Falcons' Season

On Tuesday, the club announced that, due to construction delays centered around the stadium's first-of-its-kind retractable roof, three Atlanta United matches will be revised or rescheduled.

"No concerns about the operability of the roof have ever been expressed to us by the design or construction teams", Cannon said.

"Yes, we have a complex design and we have a complex building", Cannon said.

Steve Cannon, CEO of AMB Group, the stadium's owner, addressed concerns about the roof in a statement after the most recent delay.

Questions also loom about whether the roof will be completed and operable when the stadium opens.

"Normal steelwork has taken longer than anticipated and that has had an impact on the overall timeline", he said.

The good news is the stadium should be ready for the Falcons in late August for late preseason games. The roof's construction push back the completion target from March 1 to June 1, and then to July 30.

Steve Cannon, CEO of Atlanta Falcons parent company AMB Group, said Tuesday that the opening will be pushed back from July 30...to August 26, when a Falcons pre-season game is scheduled to be played there.

According to the report, dates for the Atlanta Falcons home games are expected to be announced in April 2017. The new building also has a pair of early September college football games on the schedule, before the NFL regular season begins.

No changes have been made to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic games scheduled over Labor Day weekend.

The demolition of the Georgia Dome will be put on hold as an insurance policy in case of further delays.

"We haven't asked the question too often because we know it will be ready by January 8", Hancock said during a visit to Atlanta last week. "We feel very confident of the dates we're giving now, but we do not need to bring the Georgia Dome down". The Georgia Dome has been home to the NFL's Atlanta Falcons since it opened in 1992.

The status of the new stadium was a hot topic at least week's unveiling of Atlanta United's new practice facility.

Bobby Dodd has been an impressive - if temporary - home for the other United.

"From our perspective, we completely understand that the fans are disappointed", Atlanta United President Darren Eales said.